Chancellor will not win Nobel prize for economics - rumour

Chancellor George Osborne will not be awarded this year's Nobel prize for economics, according to rumours circulating in Stockholm.

Osborne was thought to be in line for the prize - to be announced on 15 October - in recognition of his groundbreaking 'pasty tax' contribution to economics which some observers have compared in importance to the Keynesian multiplier equation.

'George will be bitterly disappointed not to pick up the prize,' said a government minister. 'No other economist but George could have come up with the pasty tax.'

But it's believed Osborne is still hopeful that he might be in line for the Nobel prize for physics in recognition of his original contribution to U-turn theory.